Children of Gaia
by Ebony Mitsu
Summary: (RotBTD) It all began in a garden, with four young sentinels scattered and forgotten by time. Now trouble is brewing, and the Guardians must rediscover these unique individuals and reunite them before it's too late. But they face more than an impossible task; they face their own weaknesses, their own fears. Can the ancient evil be defeated, or will darkness win? (working title)
1. Chapter 1

**Hey all, Eb here. Just a quick note to say hi. I only found out about the RotBTD fandom a week or two ago, but I fell in love with it straight away and just had to write something. I thought I'd start with a multi-chap (I'm writing this as I go so updates might not be too regular, but I'll try to keep it at at least once a month) and although it's probably a plot that's been done to death, I wanted to do the cliche. Hopefully I can put my own little twist to this, but we'll just have to wait and see. If you spot any errors (aside from North's occasionally bad English) don't hesitate to let me know.**

**Also, I'm usually very poor with writing accents, so for now you'll have to imagine North's Russian accent and Bunny's Australian accent. However I hope to be able to write them properly by the time I bring some other characters in, who will have very thick accents of their own.**

**Hope you enjoy what's bound to be a bit of a wacky ride! **

**Eb x**

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Gaia stared worriedly into her oracle, a glass orb filled with swirling mists and light. Something was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong. Darkness was seeping into the light. The balance was shifting, but what could be causing it?

She bit her lip, pondering the question. Could it be the humans? True, many didn't believe in her any more, which was why her power was weaker than it once was. But enough of the mortals knew her name and her stories that she still had power, was still known. And it was impossible not to see mother nature even in these days. She considered the idea some more. They were destroying the world around them, true enough, but she was almost certain that this new shift wasn't anything to do with them. At least, not directly.

"Still blind to everything but your precious plants and animals, Gaia?"

The voice, though softly spoken, instilled a tremor of fear. "Black." she whispered.

"Of course, who else could I be? The Goblin King?" he chuckled, a sardonic chuckle, and when she turned around he was suddenly there, black as pitch and calm as night.

"What are you doing here, Pitch?" she spat, her hands fisted at her sides. She was a goddess, damn him. She deserved some respect.

"Still trying to figure out what is going on? You always were detached." her grinned. "That's why this is so easy." The growing confusion in her eyes caused him to suddenly bark out a laugh. "You're kidding, right? You honestly have no idea what is happening under your very nose? Within your own _realm_? Have you noticed _nothing_?"

Looking around, at first she saw nothing but her garden. But then it struck her, painfully, and she gasped as she flew to the first thing she noticed. "My garden!"

A single flower, among all the other white and yellow blossoms, was wilting.

"And that's not all." Pitch whispered from behind her, sweeping his arm out before them to cover the expanse of her natural garden. "Look closer, Mother Nature."

More dying flowers. Some were already dead, dried and brown. But Autumn never touched this part of her garden!

"What blight have you brought with you, shade?" she demanded.

He chuckled again. "I have been at this a long time now. Since that pesky child of yours defeated me. It has taken time, oh yes. But my strength returns, and as I grow stronger, your powers grow weaker."

Winter. He had to be talking about Winter; the only one of the four the Guardians had managed to find.

Over Pitch's shoulder she saw one of her nymphs, a tiny pixie-like thing with dragonfly wings clothed in leaves and petals and light. It was watching, hiding behind a tulip, and she hoped it would stay hidden.

"What do you want, Pitch?" she repeated, her anger strong behind her words.

He laughed and threw out his arms. "I want to throw this world into chaos and darkness. I want your children, Gaia. The four you created with the help of the Sun and the Moon. But first," his grin grew sickening. She head a rustling, rushing sound behind her, but didn't dare to turn and look; the shade before her was treacherous enough without giving him such a clear opening as a turned back.

"I'll have you."

Black sand exploded upwards on all sides, surrounding her. Through the swirling vortex she could see his grinning face. She tried to summon her powers, but could only produce a glimmer of light from her fingertips. With dawning horror, she realised he had been draining her powers steadily for a long time, and she hadn't even noticed.

"It is too late, Gaia. I have you. And soon your children will join you in the darkness!"

Frantic, she sent out one last thought, a message to be carried by her nymph, if it survived. If not then Time would likely carry it to the one she wanted.

_North!_

Pitch Black felt no small amount of satisfaction as the last grain of black sand faded away, leaving nothing in its wake but a patch of dead plants. It had taken a long time, a very long time, and he had needed to be ever cautious; Gaia was a goddess, and one did not challenge a goddess lightly. But finally, he had managed it. Draining her powers had been nothing short of pleasure.

He glanced at the oracle and the pedestal on which it sat. A white marble column about as high as his waist inscribed with vines and flowers, and on the one side, a circle divided into four quarters, each engraved with a different image.

A sun and a flower. A dagger and a bow. A dragon and a tree. A snowflake and a lake.

This last symbol, in particular, he glared at. But then his expression softened into a twisted pardoy of a soft smile, and in his soft voice he recited;

"Four to rise or all to fall.

Two of Sun and Two of Moon.

One at life's start, one near it's end,

One awake and one in slumber.

All to live,"

With a vicious back hand, he knocked the crystal orb to the floor, shattering it beyond repair.

"Or all to die."

**o.O.o**

_North!_

The voice echoed, high pitched and terrified within his head. A man with a white beard shot up from where he had been resting at the work bench, a nearby sword pulled suddenly from nowhere as he scanned his surroundings.

He knew that voice.

"North!" this voice, while still feminine, was not in his head. But it was no less panicked.

Rubbing a hand over his face, trying to tell himself that the voice had just been his imagination and that the feeling in his belly was just those two dozen cookies he knew he shouldn't have eaten, the man most knew as Santa Claus walked out into the main workshop.

"Toothy?" he stared at her, surprised; rarely was this being so distressed. "What is the matter?"

She was flitting about nervously, this way and that, and were those _tears_ on her cheek?

"It's Jack. Oh North, Baby Tooth just arrived in my palace, terrified. Jack's collapsed!"

The bad feeling in his belly intensified, four-fold. "Where is he?" he asked, reaching for his hat and coat and digging into a pocket for a snow globe.

"England. He was frosting a lake when he . . . when he . . ." she made a pained sort of wail as he tossed the snowball at the floor. "Oh North, he fell in!"

"Is he alone?"

"No, my fairies stayed with him, Bunnymund showed up, and Baby Tooth keeps trying to . . . North I don't understand what's happening. He's a spirit, he shouldn't be like this. He's believed in now!"

North said nothing as he ambled through the portal as quickly as he could, the Tooth Fairy not far behind. The old man had a feeling he knew what had happened. All too well.

Bunny was still there when they arrived next to the pretty winter lake, with Sandy. Bunny's wet fur was a testament to his getting Jack out of the water. Sandy was trying to see what was going through the boy's head; the lad was moaning in his sleep, a grimace of pain clear on his pale face, but all that Sandy's sand could project was vague shapes that disappeared too fast to be interpreted.

"Stay clear." North warned them, kneeling beside the boy and tilting his head. All the while Baby Tooth was twittering in his ear.

"Is he . . ?" Tooth was hovering nearby.

With a sigh, North offered a grim smile. "He's alive. A bond backlashed on him, that's all. He will wake up soon."

"A bond? What bond?" Bunny hopped around to the other side of the boy. "You know something, mate."

It wasn't a question, and North didn't pretend. "I think I do, but I wish to all that is good that I am wrong. You do know who he is, of course."

The others froze. Bunny twitched nervously, not looking at his burly Russian friend. "I err . . . I may have had my suspicions."

A moan interrupted the seriousness of their conversation, and Jack's blue eyes opened to see five concerned face hovering over him.

"You feeling ok mate?"

"I feel like I've been caught in a heatwave." he admitted. It was true; his senses were reeling, unsure whether he was hot or cold, wet or dry. All he knew was that he was dizzy, and his heart and head hurt.

"Don't worry Jack, we'll get you back to the workshop to rest. And then we'll find out what has gone wrong."

It was only hours later, when Jack had been forced to sleep off the worst by Sandy, that North even considered finishing that conversation from earlier. They were seated around the main room, waiting patiently as night fell, and Jack was looking both curious and worried, but at least his colour had returned to normal.

"You all know, of course, that Jack Frost is a winter spirit." North began, gazing up at the moon outside. The room was silent. "But that is not all that he is." with a weary sigh, North turned to a bookshelf nearby and pulled down a thick, heavy tome. "Jack," he paused heavily, he saddened gaze resting on the youngest of them, "you _are_ Winter."

"What?" Jack blinked, first in shock, then in suspicion. "There's no way . . . How is that even . . . I'm only three hundred years old." He finally managed. The expression on his face clearly said that he thought this a prank, and that he was waiting for someone to shout _gotcha_ and start laughing.

"I wish it were true." North sighed heavily, turning pages. "But I know the one who created you, who you served. Your mother. She asked Man in Moon for help, and he gave her you, long ago. Right now, you are three hundred years. But your spirit, Jack. Your soul is far older."

"This makes no sense." Jack repeated stubbornly. They had found out before that he didn't take well to change; his was a stubborn season that only reluctantly loosened it's grip each year.

"Originally, there were four of you." North continued, as though he hadn't heard him. "Children of Gaia, the Mother Nature, the protectors and keepers of the four seasons, charged with keeping the balance of nature in Gaia's absence. But you were scattered long ago, lost to time."

"But this is crazy," the spirit tried again. "I finally know who I am, who I was, and now your telling me that I'm not-"

"You are who you are, mate." Bunny interrupted, "but that's not all you are. You are the Guardian of Fun true enough, but you are also Winter, one of Gaia's four children. And we need to find out why you collapsed so suddenly."

Tooth had been silent all this time, watching Jack with sad eyes. She should have known; he was too special to simply be a winter spirit. He had too much power.

"The second born in fire and the fourth in ice,

The third from the forest and the first of the sun.

Four joined in hand to make the cycle of one."

North's sudden speech caught them all off guard, and they stared at him. The words echoed within Jack Frost's head, stirring something long forgotten, like an ache he had only just been made aware of.

"Four to rise or all to fall.

Two of Sun and Two of Moon.

One at life's start, one near it's end,

One awake and one in slumber.

All to live, or all to die."

"The four seasons." Tooth whispered slowly. "North, is that . . ."

"The Book of Seasons." Bunny stared at the heavy tome in awe. "Mate, how did you . . ."

"It was entrusted to me long ago, by Gaia herself when she asked of me to watch out for her children."

"So, one of us is asleep?" Jack asked uncertainly, watching the book like it might attack him.

Silence, and then Bunny spoke with a blunt tone as though stating the obvious. "Mate, that's you."

"What?" this was nuts. He laughed. "OK, now I know you're all crazy. I'm not asleep."

"Think about it, Jack." Tooth implored suddenly. "Nothing truly dies in winter, the earth only sleeps until spring."

When Spring woke it up again. Jack found himself wondering at that; he had always found the end of winter a bitter-sweet thing, but had attributed it to the end of his fun. Now he wasn't so sure.

"When we found you it was only by accident." North continued. "I only realised you were who you are, when you faced Pitch. Then, I knew. And I knew that the other three would appear soon after." He placed one hand on the pages of the book, and the other over his heart. "Something has happened to Gaia. Before you collapsed, I heard her voice. She is _goddess, _Jack. Goddesses do not need help, but she does. Now." he ran a hand through his hair, dishevelling it. "Something has happened to her, I feel it. You felt it too." he looked beseechingly at Jack.

"She needs you." Bunny added.

Sandy chose this moment to use his picture-talk. In rapid succession he formed a sun, a dagger and a dragon, and then made a beautiful flower that bloomed and grew.

"Quite right, Sandy." North stated cheerfully. "We start with Gaia herself."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a moment!" Jack yelled into the flurry of activity that sprung up with those words. By his shoulder, Baby Tooth started twittering anxiously. "Even if I am this Winter, which I'm not, what makes you think I even want anything to do with this? What makes you think we didn't all run away?"

There was a pregnant pause. "We don't mate." Bunny said at last, sounding tired. "We only know you disappeared. That's one of the things we need to find out."

"We can't do this without you, Jack. We need you." Toothy added.

"I'll help you," Jack gave in, but his voice was determined. "But just until you find the real Winter."

Sandy smiled at him, and North chuckled. "Good enough for me."

Bunny kept to himself, his mind ticking over things he had seen and heard in the last few centuries.

Jack walked through the conjured portal first - "What? No sleigh?" "Ahhh, sleigh is a bit much, where we are going." - and the others shared wry grins before following.

"Same old Winter, stubborn as glacier." North chuckled.

Bunny offered a small smile. "I can't wait for Spring to thaw him out a bit." he was the last to walk through, but his smile fell uneasily before he entered.

He knew for certain that this would not be easy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, another update. I've actually got until the fourth chapter of this complete so far (and a little of the fifth) but i'm hoping to stay ahead of you all so i've not uploaded them before now. It's been about a month right? Something like that. Just a quick warning, there is some mild swearing in here (though since most of the Russian North spouts are cusses it shouldn't be a problem), and i may also be starting an apprenticeship soon, five days a week in a busy hospital so updates if i do will _definitely_ by once a month or a maybe a little longer. **

**And i'm starting to get the accents down; I watched Rise of the Guardians three or four times in a row just to get some kind of a grip on them. Anyway, enough of my rambling. I hope you enjoy the update, and thanks toeveryone who's alerted, faved and to my lone reviewer.**

**Eb x**

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When the swirling light of the vortex faded, Jack was left as frozen as the winter he represented, staring around him. It seemed an eternity passed before anyone else arrived and the others, when they finally stepped out or the portal to join him, were left pretty much speechless.

And not in a good way.

"I was under the impression that this was supposed to be a garden." Jack managed at last.

"It was." Bunny whispered back.

It was hard to believe; the realm was quite vast; rolling hills and dipping valleys, meadows and forests. It made sense; he had a vague memory of Gaia, of hearing about the goddess of the earth when he was hanging around humans. All land was her domain, she was supposed to be almost without equal. Yet this didn't inspire nature at all.

"Oh no," Toothy clasped her hands to her chest. "North, the garden!"

"This ain't good mates." Bunny was crouched into a defensive position, his ears flicking every which way in case of danger.

"GAIA!" bellowed the Russian urgently, charging off with swords in hand.

Jack moved off the path they had landed on and knelt, raising a hand to something withered and black. "It's dead." he whispered. The sight hit him somewhere deep inside, made him want to go tearing through the growth in search of . . . what? The feelings confused him, and he pushed them to the back of his mind, a blizzard lost among snow.

Instead, he stood, staring around.

"You ok snowflake?" Bunny had moved over to him, watching him.

Feeling strangely hollow, Jack barely spared him a glance. His eyes roved over the landscape as though seeking some sort of recognisable landmark. They caught on a statue on the edge of a forest. "I-I don't . . . yeah. It's . . . dead." and damn but he still couldn't work out why that was so distressing to him, aside from the fact that this was an all-powerful goddess who appeared to have been bitch-slapped big time. He was feeling so bewildered that he didn't even comment on the demeaning nickname.

"Aye mate, but don't worry. We'll find her." In a rare display of affection Bunnymund placed a hand on his shoulder. Jack spared him a quick glance, but his blue eyes were drawn once more to the statue in the distance.

"Snowflake?" Bunny watched warily as Jack moved, as though in a trance. He looked up quickly, trying to find the other two, but Toothiana had wandered off somewhere and North had barrelled off into the garden in search of Gaia. Bunny and Baby Tooth were the only ones around.

The little fairy twittered at him nervously and Bunny nodded. "I know. Come on mate, we all know he attracts trouble as much as he causes it." and without another word he bounded off after the winter spirit.

The forest was dead like the rest of the garden, but to Jack it felt unnatural, defiled. This was not the sleep of winter or the slow decline of autumn; it was decay. Everything looked like it had both died and rotted, burned. It brought to mind flashes of darkness and wisps of light, girls screaming and males shouting. It made his head hurt all the more.

Jack Frost was a Spirit and rarely suffered such illness, but he remembered enough from his human years now. Enough to recognise that his heart knew something his mind couldn't remember.

The statue was of a young woman with long flowing hair, her limbs and hair twined with flowering vines in a knee-length gown. Though the stone was plain – his mind supplied that it could have been marble – somehow in his vision colour flowed onto her form. The hair became mahogany, the large eyes a vivid green with blue and gold flecks, her gown purest white like new-fallen snow and her skin the colour of sun-kissed sand.

"Jack Frost." Bunny's tone was stern, and Jack was dimly aware that he had been trying to speak to him for several minutes by now. Baby Tooth was hovering in front of his face, twittering to try and get his attention.

"What?" the young spirit was startled, that much was clear; Bunny was starting to get really concerned.

"I said, what's wrong?" he repeated slowly, "You're starin' off inta space mate."

Jack shook his head, not quite sure what to say. He looked beyond the statue now, noticing the clearing it was guarding. It shimmered before his eyes, becoming green for a brief instant. He heard laughter and saw gold dart into the trees.

"If you're not feelin' too good Snowflake we can wait in the workshop, I'm pretty sure that the other's won't mind."

"Yeah, sure." Jack replied without really hearing him. The gold glinted again. "Hey can you just," he glanced back at Bunny before taking a few steps forward, "I'll be right back I promise." and with that he ran off towards the clearing.

"Snowflake!" Bunny made to go after him and hesitated, looking back for the others but they were still out of sight. "Will ya-chp." Out of sight already. Realising he was going to have to go after the lad, he resigned himself to the fact, grumbling as he hopped after him. "How can I lose a kid with white hair? He's not even flying!" he groused to Baby Tooth. The fairy tittered good-naturedly at him and followed.

Darting between trees, Jack followed a path unknown to anything but his heart, over roots, through branches, Jack didn't know how long he ran or where he was going, only that he needed to get there.

Behind him he heard Bunny curse as he crashed into something, probably a tree. But the Easter Rabbit didn't catch up to him again until he had stopped. Baby Tooth flew over and chirped angrily at him until he saw the boy's expression.

"You shouldn't do that mate, we don't know what's here." Bunny told him sternly. Then he noticed the look on Jack's face too. "What's up kid?" he followed Jack's gaze.

The clearing they were in now was secluded; on one side was a willow-fringed pond and all around where some of the biggest trees he had ever seen, while the side opposite them appeared to be a vine-covered cliff. The flora was thicker near the bottom, hanging like a curtain.

"I think I've been here before." Jack whispered, not noticing as a tear fell down his face and froze on his cheek. "But I swear, I've never been here before. How can that be?"

E. Aster Bunnymund had never heard Jack Frost sound like this. He sounded torn. Bunny sat back on his haunches and watched as the white-haired spirit wandered further into the clearing, staring around him.

"There's a cave behind there." he said suddenly, pointing at the vine curtain. "It was one of her favourite places, because there's a gap in the roof at the back and the sunshine comes through, some of the most beautiful flowers grew there. And over there was where we scared Freckles so bad he fell out the tree and into the lake." he paused mid laugh, thinking about what he'd just said, then looked up at the rabbit and at Baby Tooth. "How could I know that? Why do I . . ."

Bunny didn't let him finish. The lad had never looked so young, so fragile and human, and he didn't like that expression on his face one bit so he did the only thing he could think of right then; he drew him into a hug. "Don't worry mate. It'll work out right. And we'll help ya through this."

Jack didn't reply.

Much as he didn't like to admit it, Bunny did not like seeing him like this. Jack was the Guardian of Fun, a prankster and a trouble maker who never went without a smile, grin or smirk on his face. Seeing him upset was disturbing. This was tearing Jack Frost apart and as he offered a little silent comfort, Bunny wondered if they were doing the right thing.

A fluttering sound alerted him to the presence of one of the others and he glanced up past Baby Tooth, who was lying on Jack's head giving him a fairy cuddle, to the Tooth Fairy. She shook her head, looking like she was trying not to cry as North came up beside her looking grave, as though someone had died.

Maybe they had.

The other two Guardians waited until Jack had composed himself before coming over. He held out a hand to the youngest member of their group. Jack looked confused, looking at Bunny before staring at the outstretched hand warily, like it was a snake. He held out his own, and North allowed something to trickle from his big hand into Jack's slimmer one. Something black.

"Is that . . . sand?" Bunny said, horror struck. All Jack could do was stare at it.

"Yes. We found lots of it near the centre of the garden, by where her . . ." Toothy hesitated, "Where the oracle used to be."

Bunny's response was swift and sharp. "Used to?"

North nodded. "The oracle is smashed and the pedestal has been destroyed. She is nowhere to be found."

"Pitch. Here?" Jack could finally speak past the sudden lump in his throat; the idea of the Boogeyman here made hot anger burn his throat.

North nodded, swallowing before adding, "Jack, I'm sorry, I didn't realise he would go this far."

They didn't have the chance to reply; that was the moment they discovered what was in the garden with them.

There was no sound at first, only a slight dimming of the light and a profound sense of something being very, very wrong. Jack could never remember what happened; only that suddenly all he could feel was intense anger and then he felt nothing. But Bunny, North and Toothiana would always remember; how could they forget?

The curtain of vines shifted, parted, and a long black leg came out, followed by a proud head with glowing red eyes and a sleek black body.

A Nightmare.

It began to paw at the ground, readying to charge, snorting like a broken motor.

Jack Frost didn't give it the chance.

He strode into the middle of the clearing and roared at it, unleashing a dazzling ice blue blast of magick that reduced the beast to dust and radiated throughout the forest. The clearing sparkled with frost in the aftermath whilst snow drifted down gently, but Jack knew none of this.

He had collapsed in the middle of the clearing as the other Guardians watched, awestruck.

The fight was over before most of them had even begun to move.

**o.O.o**

He remembered what it was like to be human. Sometimes it made him cry, but usually it made him smile.

He didn't know what he was now, a ghost or a spirit of some kind he supposed, but one thing remained his constant; Toothless.

The dragon remained with him always. Hiccup didn't know whether it was because the dragon was naturally immortal – he had a feeling they lived very long natural lives – or whether it had been granted some kind of immortality when he had been. All he knew was that his best friend was right there with him, and he was grateful.

When human, his name had been Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the son of a Viking chief, and the first in his village – then at least – to train and ride a dragon. He lost his leg as a boy after saving his village from a monster of a dragon; the Red Death. The leg had been replaced by a prosthetic instead, which he recalled had taken some getting used to. He had grown and lived a good life; even better, his growth spurt kicked in and he actually gained some muscle as an adult. But then one night he had simply fallen asleep and woken up as this.

Somehow his spirit had reverted back to his teenage self, something he used to hate. He had also somehow regained his leg, though there had been some funny moments where the prosthetic had replaced it which even now, several hundred years later, he was still trying to work out. He was still scrawny and small and had freckles, but Toothless could see him, and Toothless stayed with him.

Those first days had been terrible for Hiccup; thinking he was cursed or damned, terrified of touching anything in case he went through it. He had since found out that only people could walk through him – it had always unnerved him – and that he could, to some extent, control the world around him now.

He could make the trees turn for autumn however early he wished, and because he liked it that way the part of the forest he thought of as his was always in brilliant autumn. If he touched a tree, any tree, he could hear it. Hiccup had discovered he had an uncanny way with almost anything that came from the earth, but most especially with metal. But there was a downside; if his temper got the better of him and he touched something there was a risk that he could kill it. Several trees had gone that way before he had made the connection; lucky he had, for he feared killing a person that way. He didn't know how it happened though.

He still sketched, still wrote; everything he could remember about dragons (a lot) he had written down in a journal of his own, and he had borrowed (it _wasn't_ stealing) a satchel to carry his more important journals in. He had borrowed the books too, but he made the charcoal and the ink and the reed pen that he used.

But by far the biggest thing that had happened since his 'death' and 'undeath' had to be the memories. Memories of growing up in a garden he had never seen before, of playing with friends whose faces he could never see, falling into a lake and pulling someone with him, chasing Toothless through an autumn forest.

Strange, that; how Toothless was in those memories. He had even sketched a couple of the scenes he saw, but never faces. Never faces. They were always from a distance, the figures close enough that you could tell that this one was female, that one was male, but never enough detail to know who they were or what they looked like.

He was contemplating this, idly changing the colours of a maple tree to brilliant purple and red leaf by leaf, like he was painting a picture, when he got his first surprise of the day; Toothless dropped a half-eaten deer at his feet.

"Great, good job boy, just what I always wanted." was his sarcastic response to the innocent blinking of the black dragon. He looked at the carcass, then at the dragon looking at him pleasantly. "Did you have to leave me the head?"

Toothless only cocked his head to one side, unperturbed by his friend's melancholy mood.

"Yeah, well, next time you can have it." he chanced a glance at the carcass; he didn't need to eat, but he could probably put the antler to good use; he'd rather come to like whittling and carving. Maybe a bear?

A glimmer of light caught his eye and it was bright enough that he held up a hand to shield his eyes, trying to see what it was from his place on the tree branch. Something small was by the fallen log across the way.

Jumping down, he pushed Toothless away when the black dragon nudged him and nearly knocked him over, moving slowly over to the glimmer. "Not now."

The last thing he saw clearly was the tiniest outline of a human-like creature with wings, for when he reached out to touch it sand obscured his vision and surrounded him.

"Toothless!"

He could hear the dragon growling, roaring, but the sound was getting fainter and he had the strangest feeling of being weightless. Inside the cocoon was dark and he couldn't make out the colour of the sand clearly; much as he hated it he would have to wait and see what was going on.

A loud roar, muffled slightly by the shifting sands, sounded nearby and Hiccup twisted hopefully; his stomach did some strange acrobatics and the odd feeling suggested that his captor had picked up speed. "Toothless if you get me out of here now I'll get you a whole week's worth of fish!"

His powers were useless against this sand; he couldn't manipulate it like he had been able to do with other sands, and no amount of kicking and punching was getting him anywhere fast. With a resigned sigh, Hiccup realised he was just going to have to sit tight until his buddy caught up. He hated feeling weak. It brought back bad memories.

A sudden, nasty little thought entered his mind.

There had been disturbing rumours among the forest sprites of nightmarish black stallions roaming the mountains nearby, and even the humans had spoken of these ghoulish apparitions. Black horses with red eyes and black sand. Always the colour black, his mind supplied unhelpfully, though why he felt that the colour of the sand should be so important he had no idea.

Could this be the spooks running amok on the mountain?

It didn't matter, because when he got out of here his kidnappers were in so much trouble! He was a Viking gods dammit, and he and Toothless would toast their arses for this!


	3. Chapter 3

**I have some good news; that apprenticeship i applied for last month, i've got it. I'm in the middle of sorting out all the loose ends before i start (and let me tell you, apparently there are a lot of them to sort). This does have the knock-on effect of updates being affected however. It's going to be a full-time job, 37.5 hrs/wk, and something that will take me a while to get used to before i settle into it. So updating will be every 2-3 weeks at the earliest, possibly once a month. At least to start with. wish me luck! ^.^**

**Thanks to all my reviewers again; i hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you seem to have liked the last two x**

**Eb x**

* * *

Jack jerked awake without warning, jumping when a large hand rested on his shoulder.

"Easy there buddy, you gave us quite a scare for a while there." Bunny settled him back against the pillows and grinned. "Quite an impressive display though. You almost blew North clear off his feet." the rabbit chuckled.

"I did?" confusion didn't come close to what was going through Jack's mind right then; he had no memory of anything after seeing the Nightmare. He remembered the black horse, then a feeling of rage like nothing he had felt before and something in his mind had screamed _defiler_. Anything after that was fuzzy, like static from a radio. It reminded him strongly of when he had first awakened as a spirit, and it wasn't a feeling he liked.

The smile slipped from Bunny's face. "Yeah, ya did." he paused and then, "You don't remember?"

Shaking his head, Jack looked around; he was back in the workshop.

"North carried you here mate." Bunnymund said in response to the spirit's unspoken question. "You're beginnin' to make a habit of collapsin' on us."

Jack blanched; he'd fainted _again_? _'This is getting old.'_

"Bunny," North entered, spared a nod for Jack before facing the rabbit again, "Sandy's back."

"You don't look happy about it." Bunny observed.

North hesitated. "He brought company."

Bunny's ears drooped. "Oh boy."

He helped Jack to stand – better for more of them to be there just in case – and together they walked into the main workshop. Sandy was standing near the window, looking pleased if strangely nervous. Toothiana was flittering nervously around the large orb of sand that now hovered near the Guardian plaque.

"Where did you disappear to Sandy, we were worried." North asked the Sand Man loudly. In reply, a sandy image of a mountain and trees appeared over the little man's head and he looked over his shoulder at the window nervously again.

"I don't think I'm gonna like this." Jack muttered under his breath, eyeing the sand orb warily when it bulged on one side, glowed brightly, then stilled.

"What in hell is that?" cried Bunny suddenly, grabbing everyone's attention as he eyed a rapidly growing speck in the sky. "Sandy what did you do?"

A muffled call for help issued from the orb and all eyes turned from it to the speck, which was quickly taking shape.

"No _way_." Jack said, awestruck, edging nearer for a better look. "Is that a-"

"_Dragon_!" Bunny yelped, dragging Jack behind a stack of crates as North grabbed Toothiana and dove to the other side. Sandy was nowhere to be seen, which was probably just as well; the window shattered under a bolt of blue-black flame and a large black body crashed onto the wooden floor.

With an almighty roar the dragon was up again instantly, and Jack looked around the crates cautiously and watched it cast glowing green eyes around until staring at the sand orb. Growling all the while, a sound the room's other occupants felt within their bones, it carefully nudged and poked at the ball with it's nose.

"Sandy, what the blazes did you do?!" demanded Bunny as the oldest of them reappeared beside them. Quickly chaotic images of the forest, a human figure and a dragon, a net and then the orb manifested. "Well no wonder it's so bloody furious, you kidnapped its buddy!" the Easter Bunny hissed.

"I didn't think dragons existed." Jack pointed out, still observing the magnificent and extremely _rare_ creature as it made some sort of a distressed whine in its throat.

"They are all but extinct." North explained from his own hiding placed under a stair; the dragon was taking no real notice of them now; only it's ears twitched every now and then but its full attention was on the ball of sand that was now once again kicking and yelling furiously. "Used to be they filled the skies with fire and song. Humans wiped them out centuries ago. There were rumours that there is place they still exist. A sanctuary if you will, protected by a powerful and mysterious spirit."

"What's the betting Sandy caught the spirit?" Jack said wryly. The Sand Man gave a guilty little shrug, but then made some more gestures and images that were far too excited and fast for any of them to understand. "Sorry bud, didn't catch that."

Glowering, Sandy pointed at the orb, which abruptly popped much to the dragon's – and it's occupant's no doubt – surprise. The four Guardians readied themselves for the worst, but what tumbled to the floor with a loud "Ow!" was a young man with dark brown hair wearing a brown leather sleeveless jacket over a loose green shirt and brown trousers.

"Nu ti dajosh!" North exclaimed loudly when he got a good look at the kid. "Sand Man you've done it this time."

"I'll say." Bunny added as the dragon began growling up a storm once more. He twitched nervously, tensing.

"Ok, where the hell am I? Who are you people and _why_ am I here?" the lad demanded, one hand resting on the dragon while the other went to his belt and the short sword that rested there.

"Good question." Jack said cheerfully, leaning on his staff. "Why did you bring us a kid Sand Man?"

What the winter spirit vaguely recognised as the previous set of symbols flashed excitedly over the little guy's head as the kid snapped "I am not a kid!"

"Yeah, Sandy, that made about as much sense as the first time." Jack replied lazily, though now his icy blues were locked on 'the kid', who was also staring at Jack with something akin to recognition in his green eyes.

The Sand Man made to sigh, then began a replay that was so slow it was obviously exaggerated, scowling at Jack all the while. The boy's form, the dragon, the forest and the mountain – they got that much; the boy was the spirit of the forest and apparently at least friendly with dragons if not their rumoured protector – then a tree, an hourglass, a different dragon, a leaf and a crescent moon. Then he went through the whole series again.

"Sarcasm doesn't become you mate." Bunny told him sternly, scowling at the little man.

"Wait!" Toothiana pointed suddenly, flying towards them. The dragon moved as though startled and then growled at her, baring sharp teeth. "That last dragon, show me again."

Sandy obliged her, now smiling contentedly. Jack tore his gaze from the boy to look at the symbol.

"I was right!" she cried triumphantly. "It's part of the seal, North. It's part of the sigil of Autumn!"

"The dragon and the tree." Jack murmured, his eyes focusing on the boy once more as something flashed across the freckled face.

"It is like Jack." North uttered incredulously. "We don't recognise them because pictures are out-dated. They do not look the same anymore." he stared from the boy, to Jack, and back again. "They are _younger_."

The boy, during all this, had gone from staring them down to fussing over the dragon; apparently he'd decided that they weren't worth the hassle and since they hadn't attacked then he was free to turn his attentions elsewhere. Besides, his father had taught him never to get involved with crazy people and this lot were clearly as nutty as squirrels; he should know, he dealt with the crazy little critters often enough.

"I can't believe you flew all this way with nothing to operate your prosthetic tail buddy. That was really stupid of you you know. That can't have been easy. Now I've got to check and make sure you've not injured yourself." The dragon nudged him with his nose affectionately before resuming his intent stare on the others, making the boy laugh. "Yeah I know, I love you too buddy."

"You fell in the pond."

He froze as surely as if he had been turned to ice.

Slowly, the young man turned to face the speaker. The other people in the room had stopped speaking now, and even the dragon was watching the white-haired spirit curiously. The hazel eyes narrowed as they observed him suspiciously. "Come again?"

Despite the unfriendly gaze, Jack stayed put. He had no idea why he knew this, but he knew that this was the kid from his earlier memory overload. The boy was getting ready to leave, and for some reason, crazy and utterly insane as it might seem, he just _had_ to get him to stay. "You were showing off for the girls and you climbed a tree to pull off some fancy trick with your dragon, but I snuck up on you and startled you. I was running late and none of you expected me back right then. You fell out the tree and belly flopped into the water and pulled me in with you. It took half an hour to wake you up, and over an hour for Blondie and Frizz to calm the lizard down again."

The was a heavy silence.

Then . . .

"How do you know that?"

Suddenly uncertain, Jack didn't answer. How _did_ he know that? It may have been the same story he'd told Bunny in Gaia's garden, but there was a _lot_ more detail that time. Not to mention two new names that Jack hadn't known before.

"Wait, you remember who you are?" Bunny was confused; how could this kid know, but Jack not?

"I remember the event." the scrawny lad corrected, not looking away from Jack. Something in his tone implied that this was not the entire truth, while in his eyes understanding dawned. "Who are you?" this last was directed only at Jack.

"Jack Frost." trying to regain some of his usual cool, he leaned casually against the staff. He was still getting used to being believed in in any capacity; whenever he introduced himself he still expected people not to know him. So it came as something of a surprise when the young man responded with;

"Jokul Frosti? Figures."

"Yea- Wait . . . what?"

"Jokul Frosti." the lad fished something out of a satchel strapped to the dragon's underbelly and inspected it disinterestedly. "Grandfather Frost, Father Winter? Married to Spring?" he added, like this should have been ringing bells.

"I'm what?" he turned accusingly to North. "Tell me he's joking? _Married_?"

Not wanting to be on the receiving end of a nasty frost spell, but also uncertain himself, North turned to flick feverishly through the Book of Seasons. Eventually he decided not to say anything at all; silence was better than frostbite.

"At least, that's what the stories say." the lad continued warily as he watched the exchange, the horned helmet now forgotten in his hands.

"I am _not_ married." Jack stated stubbornly, glaring at him for even suggesting it; no girl had ever attracted his attention. _Ever_.

"With one daughter." the boy added, now with a smug smirk, though privately he wondered why he wanted to rile this winter spirit up so badly.

"_Oh_ no. No way. Not me." They were almost toe to toe now as the dragon watched on in amusement.

"Payback for the bath, my friend." was the smug reply, the green eyes glittering mischievously.

Jack's mouth dropped open; was this kid taunting him? But then, surprisingly, he laughed. "Fair enough."

The dragon made a sound like a gruff laugh and the lad turned back to it. "I don't know what you're laughing about Toothless, you're due for a bath." The growling laughter cut off abruptly and was replaced by a wide-eyed stare.

"Toothless?" Jack eyed him and the dragon unbelievingly. "Last time I looked that thing has teeth. Big, sharp teeth."

The brunet looked at Toothless, who blinked and huffed, and then at Jack with a wry grin. "It's more a private joke really. But you see," He lifted a corner of the dragon's mouth, displaying a completely _toothless_ mouth, and then poked a certain spot on the dragon's cheek before pulling up the corner again to reveal a row of very sharp teeth., "they're retractable." he finished with a sheepish grin.

Indeed.

"Wow. Amazing! Let me see!" Toothy didn't wait for permission and just flew right on over and began poking and prodding. "Oh they're so white! I didn't think they'd be white. And strong! I've never seen dragon teeth before . . ." she twittered away cheerfully, all nerves forgotten. The dragon was bemused, but surprisingly docile under all the fuss.

"Is she always like this?" asked the young man nervously, to which the others all responded with "Pretty much."

"So what's your name kid?"

The young Viking turned to face him again and held out a hand. "Hiccup. And I'm not a kid. I'm several hundred years old."

"Likewise." they shook hands, but it felt less a first introduction than it did a renewal of some kind. Like reaffirming something important. Hiccup's hand grew warm, while the temperature around Jack dropped dramatically and both released a flash of light at the contact; Jack ice blue and Hiccup russet like his jacket.

"Hah! I knew it! I knew he was Autumn!" North declared gleefully, rubbing his hands together.

"How the blazes did you figure that one out Sandy?" Bunny asked, awestruck. Sanderson shrugged and formed the image of the forest once more, indicating that he had come across the lad before.

"Autumn?" Hiccup asked nervously.

"Each of the four seasons had a keeper, chosen by Gaia herself and by Man in Moon and Lady of Sun." North intoned gravely. "Jack is Winter. You are Autumn."

"Is he joking?" Hiccup whispered to Jack when North and Bunny busied themselves with the book again.

The winter spirit gave a bitter laugh. "I wish."

Hiccup seemed to sense that asking about that would be a bad idea, and instead questioned the two older males. "You said earlier that we're _younger_." he made air quotes as he spoke. "If we are who you say, what do you mean by that? Shouldn't we be _older_ instead?"

"Not necessarily." North corrected him, flicking to a specific page in the book. "When first created by Gaia and by Sun and Moon, the Four were children, and grew up in Gaia's garden under her care. By the time the Four were lost to time, they were adult in form. But you two, you are in the form of children. Like you began again."

"Like you've been reborn." Bunny added grimly. "Which is increasingly likely. Jack was human before he became Jack Frost. I bet you were too."

Nodding, Hiccup replied "I was the son of a Viking chieftain."

"Whoa, a Viking? Seriously?"

"Yeah, it was pretty awesome, once I found my place." Hiccup grinned at Jack.

"Then you keep reincarnating." Tooth mused, finally done with fussing over Toothless' teeth. "I wonder why."

"Then how do you know we are who you say we are?" Jack interrupted, still trying to hold on to the belief that he was only Jack Frost and not some legendary Keeper.

North gave a sly smile and turned the book stand to face them. The page on the left was a full colour image, resembling a watercolour painting. It depicted a tall young man with long-ish brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and vibrant green eyes, dressed in deep earth tones with a large black dragon curled around him on the ground. The dragon looked an awful lot like Toothless, and the man bore a striking resemblance to Hiccup, though there were obvious differences aside from age; Hiccup had paler skin and was a lot skinnier. But when Jack looked at him the boy had gone whiter than snow.

He didn't get the chance to comment. North turned the page to another illustration, another young man, slightly taller in appearance and more lithe than the first, (not that Hiccup's doppelganger was built like a brick house that is) with shoulder-length silvery white hair and piercing ice blue eyes wearing silver, blue and white. He held a staff in one hand and a flurry of snow floated above the other, but noticeable in the pocket of his white shirt, beneath the dark blue cloak, was a light purple flower that looked remarkably like a lily, the only thing on him that looked out of place, and yet at the same time it looked as though it belonged there.

The resemblance was uncanny.

"Indeed it is."

Hiccup hadn't realised he'd spoken his thoughts aloud until Bunny winked at him. Then the rabbit grew sober. "I need to go, I think I might have a lead on Spring and Summer. We know Pitch is after the four, so I'm gonna try and get there first." Without further ado, he tapped the floor with his foot and disappeared down the hole that appeared there.

"Pitch?"

Jack noticed Hiccup's confusion first. "Pitch Black. Ego maniac, antagonist, bad guy, you'd know him better as _The Boogeyman_." he pulled a face. "Come on, I'll explain." He wrapped an arm around Hiccup's shoulders and they walked off, talking.

Toothiana giggled. "It's so sweet, you'd think they'd been friends forever already!"

"Won't last. Autumn may have been one of so-called gentler seasons but even he has temper. Jack can try patience of saint." North sighed. "Still, peace and quiet for now. Enjoy it while it lasts."

Toothiana flicked back a few pages until she found an illustration of a striking red-head, then flipped over to the image of a blonde. "I wonder who the other two are now and where we'll find them." she paused, tracing the sigil of Spring. "And why reincarnation?"

**o.O.o**

Pitch watched the tower as the shadows lengthened and the sky turned steadily black. He had been waiting for the better part of a day, and while he had more than enough patience, he was frustrated. He had known that one of the seasons was already further from his grasp than he would have liked, but had received a nasty surprise when he had visited a forest in north-western Europe only to discover that the protecting spirit was already gone.

No matter; he had not walked away completely empty-handed after all. He would get what he wanted eventually.

Silently, he moved towards the base of the stone structure. Dissipating into black sand, he travelled up until he reached the window, where he slipped inside. The room was lit by several candles, on the stairs and banister, and a young girl was painting by the soft light. He observed for a few moments, his face a mocking parody of sweetness, before he blew sand from his hand to snuff out the flames.

The girl's reaction was instant. She yelped, whirling around. A black cast iron frying pan that had been lying innocently nearby was snatched up and held defensively before her, trembling slightly as she turned every which way, trying to peer into the darkness of the newly fallen night.

"Who's there?" her voice rang clearly in the shadows, the green of her eyes reflecting the little moonlight that entered the window, making them appear to glow. Pitch only chuckled, and while he could see that she trembled, he had to commend her for her bravery; the girl did not run and hide.

Slowly, step by cautious step, she walked down the stair and onto the floor of the main room. "I said who's there? Show yourself!"

"The King of Nightmares." he whispered, chuckling again when he noticed a little green blob on her shoulder; how sweet, she had a pet.

She scowled, pursing her lips. Then they parted, and the sweetest of sounds began to issue from her slim throat. "Flower gleam and gl-"

"I think not little sprite." He interrupted her swiftly, swooping down from his place in the rafters, forcing her to stop singing and crouch to avoid being knocked to the ground. Her eyes followed the dark shape, but it was difficult to see.

Slowly the shade moved closer, until she could hear it breathing. "Who are you?" She was thankful that her voice was steady, in fact it sounded braver than she felt, but she was backed into a corner. It wasn't somewhere she wanted to be.

Instead of answering the question, he asked one of her. "What is your worst fear?"

The shadow loomed over her and a rustling sound grew, louder and louder.

Before she could even blink, total darkness entrapped her, and all that was left behind was the echo of her scream.


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm uploading this ahead of my schedule; it shouldn't knock me off too far because the fifth chapter is nearly finished anyway. I would just like to say i did warn you all that updates would be few and far between, and that goes double now that i've actually started my apprenticeship at the hospital; no more than once a month. Granted this one might actually be a little overdue . . .**

**That being said, I love that you all seem to be enjoying this fic so much you keep pestering me to update. I'm not sure whether to grin or to frown, so i think i'll settle for a smile for now. ^.^**

**Thanks to all who have reviewed so far, even if only in an attempt to get a faster update. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll warn you now that sometimes the four will refer to each other by odd names; it will be explained eventually so don't worry, and i'll include full translations when that chapter rolls around. Now enjoy.**

**Eb x**

* * *

E. Aster Bunnymund's first port of call was a ruined city called Carona. It had been around for centuries, once had its own royal family, though the line had faded since those days of kingdoms and magick, and the island it was built on was abandoned a few hundred or so years ago by superstitious locals who believed it was now cursed. The medieval city, though ruined, was beautiful to look at.

More specifically, he was looking for a particular dryad in the forest that bordered one side of the lake that surrounded the island ruins. He remembered something she had once told him about a hidden part of the forest, but needed his memory confirmed.

He arrived to find the forest in chaos, and the dryad was surprisingly easy to locate.

"Liana!" he had to shout to be heard over the din. The petite brown and green sprite looked over immediately, and relief broke out over her face.

"Aster!" she fought her way over to him through a herd of frightened deer and little woodland spirits. Even as Bunny watched, trees swayed alarmingly without the aid of wind.

"What's going on? Why's everything so-"

"The forest's treasure has been taken. The trees are angry, some are even dying! Everyone is terrified Aster. This is a peaceful place, but evil came here and took away its heart!"

"I thought you said this place was protected?" he asked as his eyebrows hit what on a human would have been a hairline.

"It is. Was. We don't know how it got in." Liana's big brown eyes were wide and scared. "The forest protected that treasure as much as they protected us. How could they be stolen?"

"Where was it hidden?"

"In the sacred part of the forest, the one I told you about last time you were here."

There were times when Bunny understood completely what North meant about feelings in the pit of his stomach, feelings so strong and so terrible that there was no choice but to act on them, and a terrible certainty that one's gut was correct about some horrible disaster. This was one of them. The feeling was so fierce it was almost crippling. A determined expression stole onto his face and his eyes hardened.

"Take me there. Now."

**o.O.o**

"So let me get this straight," Hiccup said after listening patiently to Jack's story, "Pitch Black is the name of the King of Nightmares, otherwise known as The Boogeyman. He tried once before to destroy you guys and bring darkness into the world, actually succeeded in destroying one of you for a little while, but you managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and defeat him. Have I got that right so far?"

"Yeah, pretty much." In a condensed, less cool sort of way than he had been telling the story. They were lucky that Bunnymund wasn't there to listen; he probably wouldn't have appreciated the metaphor, especially considering the state he was in at the time.

"In doing so you regained your memories of your human life, found your centre, became a Guardian, yatta yatta yatta. Still right?"

"Yep."

"So how's he come back? And why?" Hiccup leant back now. He and Jack were sitting in a quiet corner of the main workshop, near Phil the Yeti. To avoid answering those questions, both because he couldn't and because he didn't want to, Jack watched the deceptively large hands of the Yeti painting a small wooden doll.

"The banishment was only temporary, we all knew that." Toothiana announced her presence, and they watched as she floated sadly over and sat behind and a little above them on top of a shelf.

"How so?" One thing Jack had already learnt about the Viking spirit; he was curious, and not just in the way humans were naturally either. Even while listening to Jack, pumping him for every detail no matter how small, he had watched Phil carefully and quickly assemble each of those dolls, and Jack could see his mind cataloguing the little toys; how they were built, what of, how they worked and so on. It lent a slightly alarming quality to the boy's personality, as though he saw much more than he let on in everything he looked at. His gaze wasn't penetrating, exactly, but it was assessing and that in itself could make it an extremely uncomfortable gaze to bear.

"Because his power comes from fear." Toothiana explained quietly. "He was correct about one thing. You can't destroy fear, and so you can't destroy Pitch. Not really. You can only hold him at bay." she looked up from watching the dolls also, and her eyes were as sad as her voice. "I bet that's how he must have gotten to Gaia. Even a goddess fears something, they're just better at hiding it than most people."

Hiccup nodded; he'd been afraid of that. It meant that anything they did to get rid of him would only last so long; he would come back regardless. It was a problem, but one that he was itching to solve. Preferably in a way that gave these guys several hundred years of peace.

"So why Gaia?" He asked instead of the myriad of useless questions that were whirling in his head. "I don't know about you guys, but in my culture pissing off a deity was extremely dangerous." And usually resulted in severe storms, mass plagues, giant wolves attacking, the usual melodramatic drama.

"We don't know." Toothy sighed, and her whole body shook with it. "She's powerful, even with belief in her dwindling. She controlled nature, which I suppose could be an advantage to Pitch."

"It would certainly instil a lot of fear in a populace if nature got out of control." Hiccup agreed. "And he could make the world a very dark place to live in. Literally." in several nasty ways.

Jack stayed silent.

"And then there's you guys." continued Toothiana. "You're each powerful in your own right, and for him to have control of even one of you would be a disaster for us, but together the four of you are almost invincible. Your power would be off the scale. When I even think of him having access to that sort of power . . ."

"It just gets grimmer and grimmer." Hiccup finished for her. He glanced at Jack, who had been quiet throughout all of this. "What do you think?"

"Four to hold hands in the cycle of one." the white-haired male whispered.

"Come again?" blinked the brunet.

But instead of answering Hiccup, Jack turned to Toothiana. "When we're all together," ignoring for the moment that he was still trying to ignore the fact that it was looking ever more likely that he was, quite literally, Winter itself, "you said that our strength increases dramatically. What do we do, exactly?"

"Well," Toothy appeared to be thinking hard. "You control the seasons for a start. And through that the weather in some ways. When you're happy for instance it snows, but when you're angry you might cause a blizzard." she paused, then, "And each of you controls an element. Sort of. You can call upon it for help, at least."

Jack nodded; he knew about that already; his affinity with wind and Hiccup had already admitted to having some measure of control over stone and trees, though he claimed his speciality lay in natural metals. "And if he disrupts the cycle, what would happen then?"

Her eyes widened dramatically as the implication set in. "It could destroy everything." she whispered, horrified at the mere thought. "The balance would be completely gone. It would throw everything into chaos. You don't just represent the seasons, you each represent qualities, like the Guardians do. It would put so much in danger that it wouldn't bear thinking about." she swallowed heavily

"Mind letting me in on this thought process buddy?" Hiccup asked curiously, mossy green gaze on Jack's face.

"He doesn't just want Gaia." Jack stated firmly. "She controls nature as a whole, which is a start, but she doesn't control it all. She gave away portions of her powers when we were formed. He needs the Four Seasons to make the power complete and to control the cycle." he looked grimly at both of them. "He needs _us_."

"But he couldn't just _take_ that power could he?" Hiccup asked warily, looking to Toothiana for support. "He would need our co-operation to use our powers, and I know I wouldn't give in. I'd try and bury it so deep he'd never find it!"

Toothy shivered, her voice small and sorrowful, wrapping her arms around herself for comfort. "He could," she said quietly, "if he killed you." she looked up. "If he broke you."

"I collapsed when he took Gaia." Jack added. He turned to the Viking. "North said something about a . . . a _bond_ that had backlashed and that it was the connection between my spirit and Mother Nature. You must have felt something too." he added desperately. He didn't want to be the only one.

Thinking hard, Hiccup thought back to a few days ago. He had been visiting the town near his forest again, watching a local festival. He had felt overwhelming sadness, could have sworn he'd heard screaming. He'd heard a name that he didn't know but that felt familiar as his own heartbeat had been when he was alive. The next thing he'd known was waking up in the cavern the dragons lived in up in the cliffs, with many pairs of eyes watching him curiously, and Toothless had been agitated for hours. He paled. "I blacked out." he said at last, worry staining his voice. "I have no memory of the other afternoon. One minute I was watching the people in the town and the next I was back in the forest surrounded by dragons."

"The others had to have felt this too." Jack declared triumphantly; so it wasn't just him, it made him feel less like a freak and more like he belonged. "If we're connected the way you claim then they must have felt _something_. If they-" he broke off suddenly, sitting up perfectly straight and his head cocked to one side, like he was listening.

A few seconds later, Hiccup reacted to something in exactly the same way, though he appeared to be straining harder to hear.

Disturbed, Toothiana fluttered her wings. "What? What is it?" she asked anxiously.

It was Jack that finally answered, but what he said was just as confusing as the way they were acting. He uttered only a single word, "Vah," and they both leapt up so suddenly it startled all the yetis in the area and the Tooth Fairy. Together they pelted into the room that contained the Guardian plaque, where the Book of Seasons still rested on the pedestal, startling North and Sandy along the way.

"Where is fire?" the burly Russian yelled after them. Sandy formed an urgent exclamation and question mark as Toothy came up to them.

"I have no idea." she responded breathlessly; they'd nearly frightened the life out of her they'd moved so suddenly! "They just suddenly went quiet and then they exploded into this frenzy." she gestured wildly with her arms.

When they entered the room they found both boys staring at the Book of Seasons, and with good reason. The cover was embossed with the same image from the oracle pillar; the quartered circle and its symbols. And the quarter for Spring was glowing urgently. Flickering.

"Something is wrong." North spoke immediately. He was backed up by Hiccup, who was mumbling under his breath "This is bad, this is very, very bad." over and over.

"But what could it be?" Toothy asked anxiously. Sanderson formed a book and a question mark above his head, which North only just noticed from the corner of his eye.

"It has never done this before." he replied, running a hand over his beard.

**o.O.o**

Bunny stood on the other side of a tunnel into a cliff that was hidden by a curtain of vines. He was looking at a clearing surrounded by more of the cliffs, with a waterfall and a pool. Towards the back stood a tall stone tower that looked like it belonged to a time long since gone.

But something was very much wrong; the sensation was so sharp his ears twitched every second in time with his whiskers. The clearing looked like it must have once been beautiful, idyllic even, but right now it reminded him horribly of the garden he had visited just a few days ago. Everything was dead or dying, the pool of water was already stagnant. Even the waterfall was slowly becoming lifeless.

It was as though a great shadow had fallen over the landscape.

"Is there a way in?" Bunny asked, for there was no door that he could see.

"Sometimes you can get in through the window, but now the only way is the door round the back of the tower." she whispered. Her body language reeked of fear and anxiety; she was huddling into herself, wrapping her arms around her middle as though to protect herself or as if she was in pain, and her large doe eyes were never still, always flicking this way and that like she was terrified that something would jump out at them any second now.

He didn't say anything more and moved forward. Liana hesitated at first, but followed him slowly. When he reached the doorway in question, he paused too; the ground before it was littered with stones.

"It was blocked up once, long ago." Liana began, her tone quiet and distant. "To keep the treasure locked within. But you cannot cage a wild bird." her voice became hard with that last sentence, as she remembered something unpleasant.

So far, Liana had refrained from mentioning any pronouns, had only called this being 'treasure', but he knew that this was the home of a girl. He could smell it. Bunny headed through the doorway – more an open arch than a true door – and up the winding stairs in the gloom beyond. Eventually, his senses informed him of a dead end, and a trap door above. He gave it a shove but it barely budged, so he put all his weight and strength beneath it and gave an almighty heave up. With a heavy grating sound of stone on stone, the panel lifted and weak sunlight filtered down to them.

Already he could smell fear.

Cautiously, he poked his head through the gap.

The room above was tidy. Wooden table and chairs, a small stove, bookshelves filled with books, a big bay window he recognised as being the one he had seen from outside was the source of light. But despite how bright he knew the sun to be outside that day, inside was still murky. Dust motes floated through the weak light.

Pulling himself up, he surveyed the surroundings some more. Stairs led up to a curtained doorway; a bedroom perhaps? Even spirits needed to rest sometimes. Candle stubs lined the banister and the stairs. The walls were covered with paintings; every inch a work of art.

If he had needed proof that a girl lived here, that would be it; no male he knew would paint these images.

"The animals only say that they heard a scream." Liana carried on, staring around with the most heartbroken expression on her face. "By the time anyone could get in here, it was too late."

Her words caught his attention. "What do you mean? Did something stop you?"

She shrugged. "Whenever somebody tried, they were barred by a wall of darkness on this side of the tunnel." she shivered. "It was horrible, like you could touch it, but it moved and made the most frightening sounds."

Bunny moved to head upstairs, but stopped when his paw brushed over something odd. He glanced at the wall again. The painting looked newer than the others, and in fact looked only half finished. Tiny black particles were caught in the bright paint.

"No." he whispered, looking over the room again. What he had taken to be a fine coat of dust was in fact something worse. "Oh no." Much worse.

"I need to get back." he declared suddenly, hopping over the banister and landing firmly on the stone tiled floor.

"But our treasure-"

"We'll get her back, Liana, promise." He ruffled the dryad's hair for a moment before turning abruptly away. "But this is urgent. Thank you, you've been a great help, little cookie. You'll never know how much." he tapped the floor, creating a hole, and jumped, leaving the dryad alone in the lofty tower

He didn't waste any time when he arrived at the North Pole. Phil saw him before he began yelling and pointed him in the right direction, and with a grateful nod he bounded into the room the others were in.

"We have a big problem mates."

"We know." North commented dryly, casting a sideways glance at the two young men who were still staring at the book. "But we're not certain what it is yet so-"

"I do." Bunnymund interrupted him swiftly. "I got bad news folks." his eyes met those of Jack and Hiccup and regret darkened them. "Pitch has Spring."

Jack felt as though the floor had just dropped out from under him. Hiccup unconsciously put a hand on the wintry spirit's arm.

"How can you be sure?" North demanded.

"I know this girl. Have done for a long time. I'd be more surprised if she wasn't Spring. Her tower is covered with black sand. I'm tellin' ya it was just like looking at Gaia's garden all over again! The forest she protected is _dying_."

"Y-you don't think he's . . ." Toothiana couldn't make the words form, and neither of the boys wanted to hear them.

"I ain't certain. It's dying slow, so I think she's alive. I think he's tainted the place somehow, and because she ain't there to stop it . . ." he trailed off hopelessly.

There was a heavy silence as they all considered the possibilities.

"Spring is new life, innocence, she is creativity and compassion. She is light. We have to find her." North announced at last.

"But where could he have taken her?" Toothy retorted. "This world is so big! Not to mention she could be anywhere in Gaia's realm or in his own."

"He would have taken her somewhere her powers would be of little to no use." Hiccup interrupted loudly, "That narrows it down at least a little."

"Plants and animals." Toothiana recited. "Her element was water, the element of emotions and feeling."

"So where could he take her that had no plants that she could use, no animals that she could summon? No water for her to call?" prompted the Viking.

"Desert?"

"No, too risky. The ritual to take another's power, is too delicate, he must do it correctly." North waved away the suggestion. "Spring can be very delicate season. Desert might . . . be too much."

"Mountain top?"

"I doubt he'd risk an eagle or a dragon lad." Bunnymund told the brunet wryly. "He just ain't that brave."

"The Antarctic." Jack announced, his voice breaking through the chatter like a swift winter chill. When he only received stares he continued nonchalantly. "He can't take her to the Arctic, North lives here and he'd notice. The South Pole is quiet, nobody will be there, the animals, and the few people who dare to go there, stay near the water. If he takes her to the centre he can isolate her. The water is frozen, and being Spring she probably can't use it, especially if he's cut her off from it somehow. But it means we don't have a lot of time."

"Then what're we waitin' for mates? Let's go get 'er!" Bunny punched air.

"Antarctic is big place, Jack." North reminded the spirit.

"True." Jack grinned. "But I spend a lot of time there now." In fact it was starting to become like Bunny's Warren and North's workshop. He'd discovered that the more kids who believed in him and the more he visited that place, the more it changed. It now had the beginnings of an icy roller coaster right at its heart; he was amazed the adults hadn't discovered it yet, and he wasn't even sure what it was becoming. But the lake would always be his first home.

"Then before we go, we must find one more spirit. Then we can really start this off with bang." grinned the jolly old Russian.


End file.
